Call this the I.T. professional’s guide to getting hunted. I sat down with my good friend Myna Sabado, who works as a headhunter for various companies and I.T. professionals. We talked about various aspects of her job, and how people are going about finding jobs these days.

In what industry do you work?
For recruitment? Mainly I.T.

Is there a particular reason why you chose I.T.?
Because I was a former I.T. person. It’s easier for me to evaluate the candidates because they work in a field familiar to me. Also, the clients that I know are mainly in I.T., so more or less my network is in that industry.

But of course the companies that you hire for are from different industries. Because everyone needs I.T., right?
Yes, that’s it.

So how do you get to meet your clients?
With the companies, I do networking. It starts with the client of a friend that’s referred to me, and then it grows from there. The client in turn likes what I did and he will refer me to another company. I don’t usually do cold calls, because the success rate is less than if you work with people you know personally. I work through relationships.

With the candidates, it starts with friends too. Friends refer them to me. I join online groups, and become active in them.

What kind of groups?
They’re all I.T. groups. Like Java programmer groups, for instance. I befriend their moderators. If you post regularly, the members get to know you, and they give you their resumes. And the others I meet through friends. But 80% of them I meet through networking and friends, 20% from search engines like Jobstreet and JobsDB. I network with the candidates I meet through Jobstreet and JobsDB, too. One percent of my candidates come from social networking groups like Friendster, Multiply and Linkedin, which is where I primarily find my top companies and candidates. Candidates also post their CV in Linkedin.

So if someone gives you his or her resume and it looks good, would you accept it even if you didn’t know him or her personally?
Yes. I can use any resume so long as the candidate is in I.T. I put these resumes in an active file, so when a job opens up, I can find potential candidates from that pile.

In your opinion, what kind of companies would benefit from hiring a headhunter? Read more

One day, I found myself at the car races. And like the geek that I was, I of course had a book on me. It was Lynne Truss’s fabulous book “Eats, Shoots & Leaves“, and one of my friends was intrigued with the title. “What’s it about?” she asked. “Punctuation,” I said. She made a face and said, “How boring that must be.”

So I hit her.

OK, I’m kidding. I didn’t really hit her. I just smiled understandingly and went back to my book. After all, if everybody were interested in every topic in existence, it would be a very homogenized and boring world we’d be living in.

While not everyone can relate to Truss’s passion for the semicolon, the Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is a podcast for everyone. After all, good communication skills make us all better lawyers, programmers, architects and nurses. Read more

After having done a series of posts about the oft-overlooked text, I thought I’d write something about colors. Specifically, background colors.

Some web sites use background images. Which is fine, if the color is decently matched to the text (read: the two do not induce headaches in the readers). Sometimes, though, the web developer forgets about the background color and doesn’t make sure it goes with the text color. Why is this important, you ask, if you don’t actually see it because of the background image? Read more

I’d like to apologize if this post is haphazardly done. I’m away from my computer and in an internet cafe somewhere in the southern part of the country.

Now we’ll talk about one of the things that make web sites different from just another text full of words: hyperlinks or, for the sake of brevity, links. Specifically, link colors.
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We were blogging about text : what to do with it, how to present it, how not to abuse it.

2. Colors. Text is for reading, so it’s important that it’s actually readable. You’d think that people would remember something as simple as that. Too often perfectly good text becomes unreadable when presented in unfortunate colors. Sure, you have a dark, gothic nature, but red text against a black background is not a way to convey it. What it does show is a lack of imagination and people will come to the conclusion that you’re as annoying as your web site.
   
   There’s a reason why most books are printed with black ink on white paper : the text looks nice, clean and crisp so the reader can focus on the content. So you’re better off sticking to dark text on a light background. Especially if you’re a beginner.
   
   Of course this applies to longish text. For titles, banners and menu buttons, you can go crazy a little.

Much is said about web site elements like design and navigation. It’s really not fair to text, as it is just as important as, say, images. Plus, it’s lighter than images, flash animation and wav files, and therefore more bandwidth-friendly. So I’m here to correct this oversight with a blog series on text.
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How to make your web site look like an amateur made it:

1. Embed a music file. Think of how viewers will enjoy listening to an instrumental version of “Endless Love” while clicking through your site.
2. Put in scrolling text. Nothing grabs attention like stuff that, you know, moves.
3. Have lots of animated pictures. See No.3.
4. Use frames. That way, you don’t have to come up with a proper navigation plan for your site. Plus, all those scrollbars will make the pages look like a lot of fun.
5. Don’t include any information about you or whoever owns/maintains the site. No one really cares about stuff like that.
6. Don’t bother to put in any contact information. All your friends have your cellphone number, anyway.
7. Remember that a web site does not have to have a purpose. If you put in lots of stuff, people will find at least one thing they like.
8. There are hundreds of possible colors you can use for background and text. Try to incorporate as many of them as possible in your site.
9. If you know a bit of flash, make a flash banner that loops by default. If people find it distracting, it’s up to them to figure out how to turn it off.